Emmitt is a great signing for Cas,Fozzard I am not to sure about,he has struggled this season to get in our team.

Matterson and the club have placed a lot of emphasis on the experience Fozzard will bring to the club - sounds like they're looking at him more as a mentor to the young forwards than as a star player on the field. I guess he was faced with the option of joining Cas or retiring so probably isn't costing too much. If that's the case seems like a decent signing to me.

Emmitt looks a promising signing - Saints fans seem to rate him and he's at the age where he could improve massively in the next couple of years.

The off the field signs are as positive as anything we've done playing wise so far. As has been mentioned already, the fact that a proper sponsor is prepared to put a large wedge of money into Cas at this troubled economic time and also is getting naming rights to the east stand at the new stadium further suggests the stadium is looking more like a reality! The additional board members is another positive as well.

If there is (which i doubt) its very misguided. Foz has been great over the years but is well past his sell by date and was very ordinary last year at Hull KR. Not sure how much he figured at Saints but i doubt they will be losing sleep over there.

Fozzards signing makes no sense especially as you released Higgins to accommodate it.

Higgins gave us nothing. Absolutely nothing. Overweight, no offload game, clumsey but he "tried hard". Fozzard has a wealth of experience and can help out the likes of Huby (who I thought was sensational last season) Emmit, Walker & a couple more of our youngsters, plus will be slightly better then Higgins I'd assume.

Huby Jackson Fozzaed Emmit Walker > Huby Sargent Jackson Higgins (which is what we had last year in the front row)

The fact we released Higgins to accomodate Fozzard makes a lot of sense to me, and probably almost every other Cas fan. Higgins wasn't even fit!

He has hardly figured at all this season to be honest. When he has played, he's been past his best by some margin but most Saints fans knew that he would be anyway. He was bought because last season we only had Graham in the forwards at times due to injuries. He was often playing 80 minute games, which no prop should these days. This year, although we have been missing Maurie for months now, we have also had Puletua and Cloughie as well as Hargreaves who can all play at prop. Although each has been injured at some point, they haven't missed more than a couple of weeks and have never been out all together so there hasn't been the strain on Graham that there was last year. Fozzard has played when we have been at our thinnest on the ground but only then. However, he is invaluable off the pitch and he will always work hard when on it; he's just not what he was when he was last at Saints.

Emmitt is looking very promising though. He has come on under Millward/Potter this season. Cas must have made him a tasty offer because Saints wanted to sign him up again.

But to be fair isn't a players fitness down to the club, our conditioning should be better, look at Sargent, Hudson and Higgins, all of those were unfit and luckily two have left but we should definatley be looking at improving fitness by a fair bit IMHO.

I do agree with what you are saying about the club should be doing the conditioning but it also is partly down to the players attitude.

Hudson for example when he was serving his ban was the part owner of a fitness club and was a personal trainer (I believe - i am sure someone will correct me if an wrong

). If he is unable to motivate himself as a professional player who has the experience to train himself away from the club then it says a lot about the motivation of a player.

This is not a dig at Hudson but more about the motivation of players who are playing in a mid table team.

I know if i were keen to be at the top of my game i would be in the gym in the off season getting down to some hard work

Fozzard is a mistake.
2 years past offering anything worthwhile now.

Yeah, he still is...but obviously can't spend as much time in there anymore what with training etc, would have hoped it would rub off on the rest of the squad...as captain he should be able to implement some sort of heavy cardio sessions into the training sessions.

Bit like mason then?

don't expect Mason to last while May before he returns to the NRL tbh.

Depends if he like sea fishing in a gale force wind I guess.

Why?? He's not going to be sat in the away end is he??

I reckon you could reach the sea with a good cast sat in the sin bin/subs bench at HKR.